Noise Rock

NOISE ROCK

Noise rock is a genre of rock music descended from early avant-garde music and sound art.

 

Cover of The Velvet Underground

Many noise rock groups have a confrontational performance style which mirrors the aggression of their music. This reaches back to The Who and Jimi Hendrix, who were famous for destroying their instruments on stage, and Iggy Pop, of the Stooges, and Darby Crash, of the Germs, who lacerated their bodies in a spectacle comparable to the performance art of Chris Burden and Vito Acconci.Acconci was also a significant inspiration for no wave. Some performers, such as Black Flag and the Birthday Party, for example, also physically assaulted audience members, on occasion. 

1980s noise rock musicians tended to adopt a Spartan, utilitarian mode of dress following the hardcore punk ethos and in partial reaction against the more ostentatious elements of punk fashion. Steve Albini articulated an ethical stance that emphasized restraint, irony, and self-sufficiency. The Butthole Surfers were an exception in their desire to dress as bizarrely as possible. Several bands also made public reference to drug use, particularly LSD (Jimi Hendrix, the Butthole Surfers) and heroin (the Velvet Underground, Royal Trux). 

Many contemporary noise rock musicians, such as the Locust, Comparative Anatomy, and Lightning Bolt, have a very theatrical mode of presentation and wear costumes. Some bands incorporate visual displays, such as film or video art. The origins of noise rock are in the first rock musicians who explored extreme dissonance and electronic feedback.

 Examples of commercially successful figures include the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Underground rock musicians such as the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, and the MC5 incorporated elements of free jazz and minimalism. More obscure musicians, such as the Monks, San Francisco's Fifty Foot Horse, and Japan's Les Rallizes Dénudés also incorporated dissonance.

 

English: Iggy Pop, October 25, 1977 at the State Theatre, Minneapolis, MN (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 The German groups described as Krautrock are significant influences on later noise rock, particularly Can and Faust. Lou Reed's 1975 album Metal Machine Music, which entirely eschewed song structure in favor of a minimalist wave of guitar feedback, also anticipated and influenced many later developments in noise rock. Punk rock groups such as the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and the Ramones tended to avoid extreme dissonance, preferring a more traditional, straight-ahead approach to rock'n'roll. One exception was the L.A. hardcore punk group the Germs, who pursued punk rock with an amateurish, free-form tenacity.